Jill Scharff and Jaedene Levy are highly educated, accomplished, psychologically sophisticated, impressively credentialed professional women. Both work as therapists in the Washington area, helping others understand and improve themselves from the inside out. And yet -- or should that be "and so"? -- they both decided to get facelifts.
Three years ago they had their operations, just two days apart. They shared the experience together, they both kept diaries and now they offer their thoughts to anyone who seeks what they call "the unvarnished truth" about plastic surgery. "The Facelift Diaries: What It's Really Like to Have a Facelift" is their self-published dual memoir.
Therapists Jaedene Levy, left, and Jill Scharff, usually devoted to development of the inner life, reflect on the motivations and consequences of facelifts.
(Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)
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_____Live Discussion_____
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Live, NOW: Jill Scharff, M.D. and Jaedene Levy, MBA, MSW, will be online to discuss the consequences of facelifts.
_____Aging Well_____
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Fit for the Ages (The Washington Post, Jan 11, 2005)
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A Prevent Defense (The Washington Post, Jan 11, 2005)
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Home at Sea (The Washington Post, Jan 11, 2005)
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Anyone expecting for a plastic surgery sales job or a glamour story should look elsewhere. Scharff and Levy's accounts are unflinching and full of such unpleasant details as skull drains, titanium screws, bloody eyes with lashless lids, unrelentingly tight skin, painfully slow recoveries and tiny spoonfuls of baby food. There are the reactions of friends, colleagues, patients and family (such as the persistently unsympathetic son) to their recoveries and their (admittedly imperfect) results. There's also the unexpected sense of competition that rises between Scharff, 60, and Levy, 62, as they race to heal.
The book is full of psychological insight into the motivations and aftermath of an event both consider transforming -- and which, yes, they would do all over again, even if they knew what they were really getting into.
Excerpts from the book follow.
Why a facelift?
Jill: We're psychotherapists. If the inner life is so important to us, then why are we having facelifts? Because we don't believe [the inner life is] the only thing that matters. We also love good makeup, stylish clothes, perfume, great shoes and hair color. To us, our appearance is part of who we are, and [before the surgeries] our looks no longer match the way we feel. We want our outside to match our inside.
The facelift contender
Jaedene: I was always a facelift cheerleader, jumping up and down encouraging my friends to go for it, glad that I didn't need it. One day I realized that I could no longer look into the mirror and see my whole face. I could only see what needed fixing -- the puffs under my eyes, the deepening lines at the sides of my mouth, and the crevices radiating from my lips. I looked into the mirror and squinted so the puffs diminished. My hands automatically pulled the sides of my face back and up. That's when I decided that I needed to get into the ring. It's time to be a contender.
Does wanting a facelift mean that I am a superficial person, someone without deep thoughts and mature understanding, someone lacking in acceptance of nature and life's realities? Surely I can enjoy my maturity -- but fight back for a little while.
